


The Times, They Are A'Changin'

by TheseusInTheMaze



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, F/M, Intense Eye Contact, Leather, Masks, Oral Sex, Plague Doctor AU, Plague Doctor Masks, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 18:43:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13013853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheseusInTheMaze/pseuds/TheseusInTheMaze
Summary: Holly took her Plague Doctor vows a long time ago, but everything is changingnow.What is she going to do?





	The Times, They Are A'Changin'

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HerbertBest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/gifts).



> Edited by Angel! Thank you!

Doctor Holly Conrad, member of the Order of Plague Doctors, was going to take a lover.

Of course, putting it like that, it seemed as if she had woken up one morning and decided to do it.

But it was more... complicated than that.

There wasn't any particular person she had in mind to be her lover.

But she was lonely, in a way that seemed new, tender, fresh.

Maybe it had to do with the schisms within the Plague Doctors themselves; someone in the higher ups turned out to have had children, someone else was actually married....

Plague Doctors were, strictly speaking, supposed to be celibate, but usually weren't.

No marrying, no acknowledged children, and that was about it. 

Holly had gone to bed with a few people, over the course of her life, but she'd never taken a lover.

Even thinking that - _taking a lover_ \- seemed daring, secretive, something someone like her would never do.

The only problem was... well, finding said lover.

It would have to be another Plague Doctor, for one thing - who else would be willing to put up with the mask, or the fact that she kept weird hours?

People didn't... dislike Plague Doctors, per se, but they were viewed as weird.

Not that Holly minded.

But it was with butterflies in her stomach that she went to the bar that catered to Plague Doctors.

Well, didn't cater to them, per se... they just went there.

And once a bunch of Plague Doctors were in a place, most folks didn't go there.

But Plague Doctors tip well, so nobody complained too hard. 

And now Holly was sitting at the bar, wearing a nice dress, sipping a drink through a straw under her mask.

And she was being utterly ignored. 

Completely ignored, to the point where she was basically invisible.

She sighed in her mask, a puff of air blown back at her, and she put her elbows on the bar, trying not to let it get to her.

Plague Doctors were single minded.

She just had to become the thing someone focused on, at least long enough for them to talk to her. 

"Don't take it personally," said the bartender.

Holly looked up at him, surprised.

He was a tall, thin man, with curly, bushy hair tied back.

"Hmm?"

"That it's hard to get their attention," he said. "Everyone has been kinda... insular as of late."

"How could you tell I was upset? Most folks can't see past the mask."

Maybe her anxiety was making her more loose lipped than usual.

"I've been tending bar here for a few years," said the man. "I'm used to reading your type of body language by now."

"Oh," said Holly. 

That did make sense.

"I'm Dan, by the way," the man said, and he held a hand out.

"Holly," she said, and she shook his hand.

She was still wearing her leather gloves.

It had been fifty years since the Plague had been seen, but one must be ever vigilant. 

"I've never seen you before," he said.

"You might have," Holly pointed out, and maybe she was being churlish due to being looked over and spoken over, but who cared?

Plague Doctors were known to be a bit... well, grumpy sometimes.

All those fumes from who knew what. 

"Nah, I know a face," said Dan.

Holly gave him a Look, which must have been a _really_ strong look, because he could tell it was a Look, even through her mask.

"Okay, I know body language," he said. "You're new."

"I am new," Holly agreed.

The world was strange and new; one of her mentors had gotten married, and here she was, trawling for a lover. 

Did she even want a lover?

She sighed, putting her face in her hands.

There was a lot of creaking leather.

And then there was a glass of something in front of her, and she looked down at it, frowning.

"What's this?"

"On the house," said Dan. "You look like you needed it."

"Have you ever slept with a Plague Doctor?"

… now where had that come from?

Dan stared at her. 

"What?"

She cocked her head, looking at him with both eyes, the long nose of her mask pointed directly at him.

"Have you ever slept with a Plague Doctor? Had relations? Made the beast with two backs?"

He was blushing, and he was squirming.

His skin was pale enough that she could see the blood rushing up to it.

"No," he said. "I've, uh, I've never met a Plague Doctor I'd want to be intimate with."

"Really?"

He shrugged.

"Plague Doctors are, uh... you guys are good tippers," said Dan, "but you tend to be very... into each other."

"Not all of us," Holly said, her tone morose.

"I'm sure there's a nice Plague Doctor out there who'd be interested in you," Dan said, and it was clear that he was keeping his tone cheerful for her.

"Would you like to go on a walk with me?"

... huh.

Holly wasn't usually this forward.

But why not?

The world was changing, and she was lonely, in a way that she hadn’t know she could be.

"I'm here for another half hour," said Dan. "But, um, after that, I'd absolutely love to go walking with you."

"I was worried I was being too forward," said Holly. "Because of the fact that I'm the patron and whatnot."

"You're the first patron to ask me out for a walk," Dan said cheerfully.

"What else have they asked you for?"

"Well, three different Plague Doctors have asked me to participate in experiments," said Dan, his expression thoughtful.

"Oh geez," Holly murmured, and she covered her face with both hands.

"But yes," said Dan, "as long as I'm not going to get experimented on."

"I mean," said Holly, "this is a bit of an experiment."

"... will it involve needles? I don't like needles."

Dan looked nervous.

"No," said Holly. "I've just, uh... I've just never done certain things. Or at least, a certain type of certain things."

He looked at her, one eyebrow up.

"My mentor got married," Holly said, unexpectedly. 

"What? I thought you guys didn't do that."

"Neither did I," said Holly. "Neither did my _other_ mentor. So it's all a bit...." She made a vague hand motion.

"Yeah," said Dan, making sympathetic noise. 

"So... I'm gonna take a lover," said Holly. "Because why not."

"Do you... _want_ a lover?"

"I think so," said Holly.

"That's... honestly, the most straightforward approach to that kind of thing that I've ever seen," said Dan. 

"I heard, in Echo Harbor, they have a lottery to decide who ends up with who," said Holly.

"Well, yeah, it's Echo Harbor," said Dan. 

Holly was struck, suddenly, with the fact that he was giving her his full attention.

There was at least one other person trying to get his attention, but his eyes - they looked brown from behind her dark glasses, although she couldn't be sure, were looking at her. 

What would his face look like, if she took her mask off?

Was she going to take her mask off?

"Shouldn't you be making drinks?"

"What?" Dan started, then seemed to come back to himself. "Oh! Right! Sorry, be right back."

She smiled at him, although he couldn't tell.

But she watched his hands, as he poured drinks, and they were long, elegant.

What would he look like, wielding a scalpel? 

What would he look like naked?

... the first image that came to her was of him as a cadaver, his eyes closed, lying flat on the table where she did dissections and autopsies.

No.

Try again.

Dan, in her narrow bed, in the attic room that she lived in, right over her office.

Dan, shirtless - he had a narrow chest, narrow shoulders.

He'd have a thin chest, probably, and she'd be able to feel his heart racing, if she put her hand over it.

His skin would be warm against her fingers, through her gloves.

... maybe even without her gloves.

She sighed again. 

She wasn't any good at this.

She'd done some mutual explorations in her student days - she wasn't a virgin by any interpretation, but since she'd begun her practice, she hadn't really seen the point.

She had patients, she had her pigeons, she had her books.

And then it turned out that Amara had a wife, and some yawning hole had opened up in Holly's gut.

And now she was seriously considering taking a strange man to bed.

What if he carried the Plague?

... no, it didn't work that way.

There hadn't been any Plague in fifty years. 

Another sigh, a blast of hot air within her mask, sending the scent of leather and a bit of the lavender she'd put in the "beak" of her mask back to her.

And then Dan was in front of her.

"Where would you like to walk?"

"You're done? Already?"

"Yeah," said Dan, and he smiled at her. "You seemed lost in thought, and I didn't want to interrupt you."

"That was awfully nice of you," said Holly. 

"I do my best," said Dan. "So. Shall we?"

"Certainly," said Holly. 

"Where are we going, exactly?"

"I'm not sure yet," Holly said. "The frost fair is still up, if you'd like to go to that."

"Certainly," said Dan, and he offered her his arm.

He was wearing a long wool coat, and she put her hand in the bend of his arm a little nervously.

The coat was dark blue, and it contrasted with her leather glove.

"Shall we?"

"Let’s!"

* * *

The frost fair was very pretty.

There were demonstrations of the healing power of electricity - Holly rolled her eyes at it, and Dan laughed.

There were fish pie stalls.

There were people selling birds in cages, and people selling kittens.

There were even people performing - fire eaters, tumblers. 

They got a few odd looks - seeing a Plague Doctor with someone who wasn't a Plague Doctor was a bit unusual, to be sure, but Dan was affable, and it was late enough that many people were out and roaming.

Dan held her hand, a bit nervously, but she squeezed his fingers - they were cold, even through the leather of her gloves.

She was warm - Plague Doctors were martyrs to the heat, but when winter came along, they were on top.

All those layers, between the mask, the coat, the hat....

She hadn't brought her stick, but she didn't really have a need for it. 

She hadn't ever had a need for it - it had been fifty years since the Plague had been seen, after all.

But then they were at a dark corner, and there was a quiet noise coming from one side of it, and Holly blushed, leaning closer to Dan instinctively. 

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she would have been embarrassed about that, but then she saw the white flash of a woman's ankle, and the white of petticoats, and... oh my.

That was enough to be embarrassed about.

Dan cleared his throat, looking down at her, and he was blushing.

"Would you like to get something to eat?"

"I can't... I can't take my mask off," Holly said. "Not in public."

"Would you like to come up to my lodgings?" Dan was blushing. "I have... I have some food there. And it's not public."

He cleared his throat, as she kept looking at him, and the decision to bed him hit her in the back of the head like a sack of potatoes.

The light from the gaslamp caught the burnished copper of his hair, and it gilded his skin golden, from his hairline to his chin.

"I'd like that," she told him.

She wanted to feel his body against her own.

Not... not naked, not yet.

But... well, these things took time.

And the idea of having him inside of her was enough to make her shudder.

He shot her a concerned look, and she nodded.

She was smiling, although he wouldn't be able to tell.

* * * 

His rooms were small - a kitchen, a bedroom, a small sitting room with a very old, very lived in chair. 

"I'll just, um...." 

He took his boots off, took his coat off, and he made to take her coat off.

She paused, then let him.

The long leather flapped, and it stayed on the coat hanger.

She let him have her hat as well, although she kept on her mask and her gloves.

She'd worn a nice dress, a little bit lower cut than usual, and her corset pushed her breasts up and forward.

She caught Dan's eyes lingering, and she smiled.

She glanced a little lower down, noticed that bulge in his pants.

Right. 

She had read this properly.

"I'm actually not that hungry," she said, when he'd put the kettle on.

"No?"

"No," said Holly. "But I'd be interested in sexual intercourse."

Dan froze, and he was turning pink.

"... what?"

"Intercourse. With you." 

She pressed closer to him, the nose of her mask on his shoulder, her breasts soft against his chest. 

"... can you take off your mask?"

"I would rather not," Holly said quickly. 

She was... she was trying new things, but there are only so many new things one can do in one go.

"Alright," Dan said slowly, carefully, and he was blushing. "Will you let me see... other parts of you?"

"Other parts of me?"

"Well," said Dan, and he cleared his throat, rubbing his hands together, "I would... when I... I like to give pleasure. To women. With my mouth. And many women prefer that... without any light. Without me seeing anything."

"Oh," said Holly. 

That... wasn't what she had expected. 

"If that's alright," Dan added quickly. 

"No, I'm... I'm alright for it. Although... um." She cleared her throat, and she dug around in her pocket, then took out the small device. 

It was a little kit that her mentor had created, a quick test for all the standard ailments, including the venereal ones.

"What is that?"

"I just need a little bit of your spit," said Holly, and she indicated the little stick, "and some water with salt in it."

"... alright," said Dan. 

Either he actually did like her, or he really was desperate to give her this pleasure with his mouth, whatever it was. 

"Alright," said Holly, standing on tiptoe. "Just... open wide."

* * *

She dumped the little stick into the water, and she watched it.

Nothing changed any colors.

He didn't have anything she needed to worry about, health wise.

"Alright," she said. "You may proceed."

Dan was smiling at her, a bit crooked.

"You know," he said, and he was getting down on his knees, right there and then, as she leaned against the wall beside his kitchen table, "when I thought of being with a Plague Doctor, I never saw it being quite this... clinical."

"Clinical?"

"That you'd keep the mask on," said Dan, and then he was under her skirt, his hands on her legs, burning hot through the wool of her stockings, and her drawers were being drawn down her legs, leaving her free, her thighs damp with her own arousal.

"Oh," said Holly. "It's... this isn't... an... oh!"

She arched her back, as he licked her clitoris.

She'd done this before, sort of.

When she was younger, before she'd earned her mask, when she had needed to cover her mouth with a pillow to keep from waking anyone else in the dorm.

And he was parting her with his fingers, he was sliding one of his long fingers into her, and she moaned behind her mask, her hands on his head.

The leather creaked, and he panted against her, then slid his tongue along his finger, before beginning to jab at her clitoris with the tip of his tongue.

She was grinding her hips against his face without realizing it, and okay, it was... it was different from what she was used to; she'd never been this kind of intimate with a man before. 

The last man she'd had sex with, they had both been taking notes the whole time.

There had been some perfunctory kissing of her throat, of her nipples.

He had rubbed her clitoris enough to give her a small orgasm, and then his penis was inside of her.

She'd taken down what it felt like, and they'd both left satisfied with the research opportunity.

Was this a research opportunity?

Some small part of her was taking notes.

The rest of her was lost in the sweetness of it, the pleasure, the warmth.

What would his hair feel like, under her bare fingers?

What would it feel like, to have his face against her own?

To kiss him?

She shuddered, and the image of his eyes staring into hers was what sent her over the edge, the lust cracking in her belly like a bone, and then she was shuddering, taken over by paroxysms. 

And his fingers were still inside of her, as he came out from under her skirt to look up at her.

In the dimness brought on by the dark glasses that came with her mask, she could just make out a few of her own dark, curly hairs against his chin.

Um.

Another little arrow of want went through her, and she clenched around his fingers.

"Can you hold your skirt up, please?" 

Dan's voice was lower, deeper, and she could just make out the way there was a wet spot on his trousers.

She wanted him inside of her, sooner rather than later.

But she had promised. 

So she held her skirt up for him, and he watched him watch her. 

His eyes were drawn to the juncture of her thighs, and each thrust of his fingers, each curl of his knuckles stretching her out, she moaned, and his eyes got wider.

"You're so pink," he said quietly. 

She bit back a response, and just nodded. 

"And so wet. It's... I've never really seen it in good light before," he said, and his thumb was on her clitoris, as he circled it.

She was moaning, and her mask was making them reverberate, until her own head was full of her own sounds, and her hips were shifting forward, trying to get his finger deeper, and he was panting, open mouthed. 

“Oh,” he said thickly, and then his mouth was on her again.

She stared down at his head - his hair had come out of its ponytail, and it was springing out around his head, and she wanted to hold on to it, but she couldn’t if she were going to hold the skirt up, and she sagged back against the wall, as he began to lick her, the tip of his tongue against her clit.

She sobbed, and she went weak in the knees, as his warm breath met the heat and wetness between her legs, and she spread her legs wider, to give him more access, and then he was using his second finger pressing down on that one spot inside of her, and she shook harder, as he sucked on her clitoris, and her eyes were rolling back in her head.

She had another orgasm, stronger than the ones she’d had before, stronger than the ones that she had given herself, and then she was going weak in the knees, and he was standing up, pulling his cock out, pressing it against her belly.

She was going to need to wash this dress.

Oh well.

“Please,” Dan said, and it was into the top of her head, into her cheek, nuzzling into the soft leather of her mask.

“Please,” she said, then “please,” again, a little louder.

She lifted her leg up unsteadily, hooked it around his hip, and she grunted and sighed as his cock slid into her, his hand holding her thigh to his hip, his other hand guiding his cock into her.

He was long, solid, thick - he was circumcised, and she wanted to ask him about that, but later.

When she wasn’t being filled by this lovely, hot thing. 

She sighed, she shuddered, and she rested her forehead against his chest, her own mask prodding at her chest.

Her breasts were aching to be touched, but now wasn’t the time for that, now was the time to cling to him, as he thrust into her desperately, panting and moaning in her ear, as his cock plunged in and out of her, making wet noises.

She grabbed his hand in her own leather gloved one, and she meant to bring it to her breast, to pinch her nipple where it rose up over the mountain of her corset, but she didn’t - she just held on to him, their fingers interlaced, and she stared up into his face, as he leaned over her, staring into the eyepieces of her mask.

His orgasm made his face long, soft, ugly in that way that only the very vulnerable can be.

His fingers were on her clitoris even before his cock had finished throbbing inside of her, and she shuddered, and came and came around him, clenching the lovely thing inside of her in such a way as to make him cry out, as he shook against her. 

“You’re really good at that,” Holly mumbled into his ear.

“I’ve got practice,” Dan said, nuzzling her cheek.

He was getting her vaginal fluids on her mask, and she was going to have to wash it off.

Oh well.

“Thank you,” said Holly, and she was shaking. “I… I needed that.”

“You seem a lot more relaxed now,” Dan agreed. “I’m glad I could help.”

“I’d like this to be a more regular arrangement,” Holly said, as she carefully put her foot down.

Her legs were shaking, still, but oh, that had been a good orgasm.

“You’d like to be courted?”

“Something like that, I suppose,” said Holly. “Would you like to walk with me to the market next week?”

“Certainly,” said Dan, and then he was laughing into her neck.

“What’s so funny?”

She disentangled herself, grabbing her drawers and pulling them up.

A bit of his semen trickled out of her, and she made a face.

She had taken a dosage of the tonic to prevent pregnancy, but she was probably going to have to clean up when she was home regardless.

… it was worth it, for the sweet burn in her muscles. 

“I usually… don’t discuss courting someone when I’ve already put my prick in them,” said Dan. 

“Well, I like to be thorough,” said Holly. 

“Oh, of course,” Dan agreed. 

He flopped onto a chair, leaning into his, his prick going soft, still wet and shiny with their combined juices.

She wanted to put it in her mouth, which… no.

That was unsanitary, and she’d have to take her mask off, and she didn’t take her mask off when she wasn’t at home.

Okay.

“Would you like to walk me home?”

Dan’s face fell, just a bit, but then he smiled.

“Of course,” he said, as she gathered her things.

It was a pity the mask covered so much of her hair - he probably would have been amused to see that her hair was pink.

Probably not as pink as other bits of her, admittedly, and now she was blushing, remembering the sensation of his fingers inside of her, and the look of awe on his face.

So she had done it.

She’d found a lover.

She took his arm, after he’d gotten himself properly dressed, and the two of them made their way back to her practice.

* * *

They established a pattern, after that.

They went on walks together, usually after dinner, at least twice a week.

And then they went back to his lodgings.

He licked her, from one end to the other, and she came and came, in a gush of fluid and embarrassment. 

He asked about her taking the mask off, and she kept refusing it.

She let him touch her bare breasts, when he had pushed the neckline of her dress down, and he had lavished them with attention, from his mouth, from his hands.

She’d done things to his prick, let him put it between her thighs, between her breasts as she sat on his face.

It was… it was filthy, and unsanitary, and the old Holly - the Holly who had total faith in her vows, in the Plague Doctors as a whole - would have shuddered.

Current Holly shuddered and shook her way through orgasms, and kept her thoughts to herself when she saw one cohort’s swollen belly, or a gold band appearing over the glove of another’s.

So what, she had taken a lover?

Better than a marriage.

Better than a child.

She was bending the rules, not smashing them like an old plate.

* * * 

“Dan?”

“Mmm?”

They were walking through the marketplace, hand in hand. 

People had gotten used to it, at least somewhat.

What were people thinking about them?

Who cared.

“It’s getting cold,” she said, squeezing his fingers in their wool gloves, “and my house is over there. Would you like to go there?”

“... what, to yours?” 

Dan was blushing.

She had been a bit… recalcitrant about him coming to her office, for one reason and another.

But she was beginning to get… urges.

Ones that she didn’t entirely understand.

But she had been giving in to them so far, so why not keep going?

There was a sound in her ears, a bit like the breaking of a plate, but she ignored it. 

“Yes,” she said. “I’d like you to meet my pigeons.”

“I’d be honored,” said Dan, and he squeezed her fingers. “Thank you.”

* * * 

They came in through the office, and it was quiet.

Her secretary’s desk had the appointment book spread over it, and the chairs for the client were lined up straight.

Dan looked almost out of place, his long, gawky frame taking up space in the dim gaslight.

“This way,” Holly said, indicating over her shoulder, and the two of them made their way up the stairs, past the exam room, into her living quarters.

Her rooms were small, but comfortable.

Most of one wall was taken up by a bookshelf, and her bed was behind a screen.

“Wow,” said Dan. “This wasn’t what I imagined.”

“What did you imagine?”

Holly took her coat off, then unlaced her boots, taking them off. She sat at one of her chairs, and she watched him, as he moved around the room, looking at her plants and her books and her various brick-a-brack. 

His coat and scarf were on her coat rack, and he was taking his boots off as well.

“Would you like to meet my pigeons?”

“Certainly,” he said. “Where are they?”

“This way,” she said, and she indicated the small ladder against one wall. 

* * * 

The two of them stood on her roof, barefoot, and the pigeons cooed and made quiet noises at them.

“Hi, babies,” Holly said, her voice quiet. “Hi. How are you? This is Dan….”

Dan stood there, as a few pigeons landed on him.

He looked nervous, but he stayed completely still.

“I’ve been feeding the pigeons near the bar,” he admitted, as a pigeon launched off of his shoulder. “Corn, like you said.”

“It’s good for them,” said Holly. “I wish people would stop giving them bread crumbs.”

“I told my boss as well,” said Dan.

There were feathers flying around them, and by the time they came out, there were a few feathers in Dan’s hair.

She stood on tiptoe to remove them, and he took her hand in his own, kissing the back of it, his lips leaving an imprint on the leather.

She kept eye contact with him in the dimness, and she grabbed the finger of one glove, pulling it off, then pulling off each finger, then the whole glove.

He started, and he took her hand in both of his own, keeping it warm from the frosty air, their breath misty plumes in front of their faces.

He kissed the back of her hand, and then he kissed her palm, then the inside of her wrist, keeping eye contact, inasmuch as he could, when she was wearing the mask.

“Let’s… let’s go back in,” Holly said thickly.

She was shaking hard enough that she had to take a deep breath before going down the ladder.

* * * 

Her fireplace cast a warm, golden glow on her rooms, and the trap door to the roof made a satisfying “thud” noise when he closed it. 

She took her other glove off, still looking at him, and she looked into his face through the dark glass of her mask.

And then she reached back behind her head, and she undid the clasps that held her mask on, pulling it up and off of her face, leaving her… naked.

She squinted in the brightness of the room (well, relative brightness), and she stared into his face, her own hair feathering around her face, licking her lips.

“I didn’t think you had pink hair,” Dan said, and then he was leaning forward, down towards her, his hands on her cheeks.

They were very big, and very warm.

“It’s a… treatment I use,” Holly said, and her voice was very loud in her ears, without the muffling of her mask. “To make it easier to manage.”

“I like it,” said Dan, and his hand was going to the back of her head, his fingers weaving through the hair at the back of her head. 

She turned her face up to be kissed, and felt his breath against her face for the first time, his cold nose against her cheek.

His stubble was rough against her skin, and his lips were dry and chapped against her own.

His tongue was very hot, almost tentative as it slid into her mouth.

His hair was more red than she had thought, and his eyes were a lovely light brown, this close.

She sighed at his hands on her face - thumbing her cheekbone, stroking along her eyebrow, then moving down her arms, to hold her hands in his own.

Her skin was singing, the warmth of his body reflecting back on hers, until it felt like an endless refraction, and she was going to combust if she wasn’t careful.

She broke their kiss, and she was panting, her cheeks red.

His face was still breathing in the sight of her, and his hands were tracing over each of her fingernails, memorizing the shape.

“You’re… you don’t look like I thought you would,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Holly said, and she flushed, looking to the side.

“Why?”

His hand was on her face again, cupping her cheek.

His hands were very soft.

She held on to his shirt, and then she was pulling on it, shoving it over his head, leaving him shirtless in front of her, and she was wearing too many clothes as well, but… this might take a few minutes.

* * *

To Dan’s eternal credit, he was patient. 

He helped her unbutton the top of her dress, and he pushed it off of her shoulders, letting the sleeves slid off of her arms, helping her step out of it, until she was only wearing her stockings, her shift, and her corset.

He pulled the shift off of her next, and he kissed along her shoulders, the back of her neck, holding her against his front, his chest hair scratchy against her shoulder blades.

“I’ve dreamed of this,” he said in her ear, “and you’re more amazing than I imagined.”

She was flushing, and now he could _see_ it, he could see how dark her eyes were, he could see the goosebumps running up and down her back.

He held her breasts in his hands, the hardness of her corset a contrast to the stiffness of his prick.

“Take it off,” she said, tapping the corset, and she was reaching awkwardly around behind her.

“No, hold on, I can help you with that,” said Dan, and he was… just unlacing her corset.

She sighed as it let her go, and then he was pulling it up and over her head, leaving her in just her stockings and her drawers, his erection against her, and then her drawers and her stockings were being rolled down, and he was kneeling down, his hair soft and ticklish against her backside.

And then he was… kissing along her backside, then her thigh, as she turned around, looking down the line of her belly at him.

He looked up at her, licking his lips, and he put his face into the softness of her stomach, his fingers tracing over the marks from her corset.

She was naked.

Completely naked.

She was almost _never_ naked, apart from when she took her bath.

But here she was, with Dan’s stubbly face rubbing against her belly, then kissing her lower, his nose parting her labia.

He was licking her again - he couldn’t get enough of her there, the taste of her, the heat.

“No, look at me,” he said, when her head tilted back. “ _Please_. I’ve been dreaming of your eyes, I need….”

She stared down at him, panting, and he kept eye contact with her as he spread her open with his fingers, and he was licking her clitoris, his lips wrapping around it, beginning to lap at it.

She gasped, and her bare hands were in his hair.

It was dry, a little bit wiry under her fingers, but she held onto it her eyes sliding closed, and he didn’t reprimand her this time. 

He was… encouraging her to move forward, and then she was standing over him entirely, his narrow shoulders against her thighs, and he was pushing her carefully onto the bed, so that her lower half was still dangling off of it, her feet planted, and he was between her legs, his hands on her backside.

He was just… looking at her, taking it all in, and she was taking great, grasping handfuls of her blanket, twisting it around and around her fingers, moaning as he began to lick her again, from her vaginal opening, then… lower.

“Oh!” 

Holly made a surprised noise, as his thumbs held her backside open, and then his tongue was inside of her… well, _there_ , but he was making desperate, greedy noises, and moaning the way he usually did when he was inside of her.

“Oh, Dan, oh,” Holly was gasping, whimpering, and she was pressing closer, as he more or less threw her legs over his shoulders, so that her heels were drumming into his shoulder blades, as his tongue dove into her, and then he was moving back to her vulva, licking her clit, his fingers sliding carefully into her backside, and alright, that was a bit… weird, but he was curving his fingers, and his tongue was _inside_ of her.

She ground against his face as he licked her, sucked on her clit, his fingers curving, and her orgasm snuck up on her, as she threw her head back, clenching around nothing.

She looked between her breasts at him, and saw that he was looking at her face, and she flushed, looking away.

She missed the mask, and the ease with which she could hide her face.

But she could smell him now, faintly - he smelled a bit like the dark wood of the bar, he smelled like her, he smelled musky and male.

It was different from the leather.

And he was climbing up on top of her now, so that the both of them were awkwardly dangling off of the bed, until she wriggled out from under him, patting the bed next to her.

And he was lying on her bed, still wearing pants, and okay, no, that wasn’t what she wanted, not at _all_.

There was an awkward minute or so, as she pulled his trousers off, and then he was lying naked - he’d even lost his stockings, and there was his penis, flushed and purple, dripping down his shaft, pointing towards his chin.

She took it in her bare hand, and he moaned, his eyes squeezing shut, and it was her time to shake her head, to reach up to grab his hair with her other hand. 

“No,” she said. “Look at me.”

He looked into her face, kept the eye contact, occasionally glancing down to see his prick disappearing in the tunnel of her fist.

She was a little clumsy with it - she wasn’t used to doing this with her bare skin, and the heat of him was catching her a little off guard.

Because he was so _hot_ , hotter than his skinny frame really betrayed, and she wanted to climb onto him right here and now.

And she could, she realized suddenly.

She could straddle him, take the heft and weight of him into her, feel the ridge and the heat of his penis, his heart beating desperately inside of her.

So she did.

She straddled his bony hips, her knees pressing into his sides, and she kept her eyes on him as she took his cock in her hand, lining it up with her own entrance.

She slid down onto him, and he made a noise like he was in pain.

She’d never noticed how much he flushed, when she was fucking him.

This was only the second time she’d ever seen him without a shirt.

He flexed his cock inside of her, and he sat up fully, his hands on her hips, squeezing them, and then he was sitting up awkwardly, his cock sliding up, but she followed after him, coming back down on him, and oh, this was so much better.

His light brown eyes sparkled in the firelight, and his cock was thick and hot, heavy inside of her. 

She rolled her hips, and he groaned, keeping his eyes on her, and then he was kissing her.

He tasted like her - musky, salty, sour, a note of sharpness - and he tasted like himself, as his hands went to her hair, tangling his fingers in it, rolling his hips, fucking into her.

“You’re so… oh, Holly,” Dan said, and his expression might be described as limpid, if this was one of those novels that Holly’s secretary liked to read.

Admittedly, if this was one of those books, they would have faded to black a while ago, but now she was beginning to roll her hips as well, one hand going between her legs to rub her clitoris, only for him to cover her hand with his own, rubbing her with his own fingertip.

His tongue was in her mouth and his prick was in her quim and his hand was gripping her hip, as she held on to his hair, panting, sobbing.

“Oh, Holly, you’re so beautiful,” Dan said, his tone fervent, and he let go of her hip to grab her breast, taking her nipple into his mouth.

She fluttered around him when he started to suck, moaning loud enough to wake the dead.

Thankfully, she owned the building, and didn’t have any tenants.

But oh, he was hitting… something inside of her, or rubbing against it, or _something_ , because she was clenching around him, the pleasure sinking deeper and deeper roots into her, like a tree cracking through a rock.

She came around him, sobbing, shaking, her thighs hard as marble, her nails digging into his back.

She kept eye contact the whole time, and his hand stayed on her clit, even as he began to speed up, letting go of her breasts, arching his back to get himself as deep as he could.

He came inside of her, a burst of heat and wetness, and his eyes only closed for an instant.

She took in the sight of him - his long, craggy face, his open mouth, his dark eyelashes.

He was so beautiful.

She sobbed, pressing her forehead against his, breathing his breath, and he cupped her cheeks, his palms soft against her cheeks.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. “So amazing.”

She flushed, but she didn’t look away.

She stared into his face, as her bare hands stroked down his back. 

He sighed, nuzzling against her cheek. 

“It’s a good thing that we’re in your house, huh?” He spoke quietly in her ear. “Since you’re not safe from the Plague, as naked as you are.”

“The Plague hasn’t been seen in fifty years,” Holly said, her tone dismissive, and she nuzzled into his neck, taking in the sweet smell of him. 

Her Order was changing.

She didn’t know what she was going to do about that, about who she was.

But right now, she was a person with a lover in her arms, and that was all she needed.

Doctor Holly Conrad, member of the Order of Plague Doctors, had taken a lover, and the world hadn’t ended.


End file.
